Testimonials
I often get asked about our success rates. Well, I could tell you that we had a 100% success rate for ARC Future Fellowships (we did at one point, but that was after reviewing just one grant). Or I could tell you about the person who we had a 0% success rate with (but who credits our development approach with her next two successful grants!).
Hopefully the below testimonials speak to the value we add, but if you’re after some data… up to 2023 we’ve helped researchers secure >$222 million in funding. For some of our regular clients we’ve calculated a Return on Investment (ROI) of ~$300-500 for every $1 they’ve spent on us. The schemes we’ve successfully supported (to 2023) include: ARC DP, LP, DE, FT, SRI; NHMRC Ideas, Investigators, Synergy; MRFFs; philanthropic grants; and Tall Poppy awards.
We help ECRs who are new to grant writing, senior researchers who are time poor, MCRs who need a fresh perspective… and anyone in between. Here’s what some of them say about us:
“You were absolutely critical to this great outcome
- we honestly couldn’t have done it without you.”
“Please can you pass on enormous thanks to the reviewer from me. The feedback is absolutely brilliant, incredibly insightful and clearly tailored to the ARC process. As someone who is new to the system, this kind of support is invaluable!”
“Thank you so much for your help with my Future Fellowship - it really changed how I write grants and contributed so much to recent successes.”
“I have been using Empirical Research Development as a ‘second pair of eyes’ on my grants and award applications for a few years now. With their backgrounds in research, experience across various funding bodies and schemes, and their attention to all the right details, Narelle and Nadia help me make sure my applications are submitted with the best chance for success.”
“In the last 20 years of writing grants, I found Narelle Tunstall’s comments on my draft ARC grant proposal to be the most constructive that I have encountered. Her expertise, insight and attention to detail ensures that grant applications are submitted in their most competitive form.”
“I worked with Nadia Hamilton over a long period of time in her capacity as an advisor regarding research grant applications and the resulting administrative issues. She always provided me, and members of my research group, with excellent advice. It is fair to say that we would not have been able to achieve the research grant success we did, without her expertise and assistance. Importantly too, Nadia was always very pleasant to work with. This is a big issue of course, when the stress levels get high!”
“Narelle Tunstall should be called the “grant whisperer”. Her extensive knowledge of the ARC funding system and ongoing help with the development of my team’s grant proposal resulted in a successful outcome. Narelle focussed simultaneously on the big picture and tiniest detail, ensuring that we were able to direct our energies to putting together the best submission possible without becoming overwhelmed by the complexities of the process. We even enjoyed the experience!”
“Dr Narelle Tunstall provided exceptional work for our ARC grant readership scheme. Narelle demonstrated particular skill in improving the readability of dense academic writing without sacrificing its scientific rigor. This is a priceless and uncommon talent at which Narelle is exemplary. Narelle also proved to be absolutely trustworthy in her timeliness with providing feedback on applications despite the extremely high workload and was very responsive to communications. More than anything else, I appreciated Narelle’s personal interest and enthusiasm for her occupation – she is genuinely invested in work of the research community and this showed through in her writing and editing.”
“We were applying for a highly competitive Commonwealth Government grant to support the commercialisation activities of our EdTech startup. By far and away the single most important aspect of the application was for the grant writer to understand and then convincingly convey our ‘story’ our ‘value proposition’ via the required Merit Criteria and Nadia delivered. Not only did she deliver she was able to better capture and explain our ‘story’ than we ourselves were able to do which resulted in our successful application”
“Dr Narelle Tunstall has outstanding high level project management skills and has an excellent understanding of the Australian research grant system and schemes, particularly ARC and NHMRC research initiatives. She is positive, responsive and very supportive of academic researchers. I found that she added considerable value to my research grant application.”
“Narelle Tunstall is the person to have at your side when writing research grants. Her grasp of the process, and her ability to match your research idea to it, is unmatched in my experience, and just what you need. She helped me get a large grant just by giving attention to the right details and keeping a close watch on the essentials. Using the knowledge I gained doing that first one meant I was able to get subsequent grants. Narelle is just great at this job.”